I’m so pleased to announce my short story, IT WAS EASIER, appeared today in the music-themed literary magazine, Mixtape Methodology. This is an especially exciting event for me because my first novel, RADIO HEAD is musical fiction. Also, the Middle Grade novel I’m currently working on is entitled, HOW I LEARNED TO PLAY GUITAR. Clearly, music is oh, kinda important to me, and my readership. I’m so grateful to have an opportunity to reach out to the music-loving readers who look to Mixtape Methodology for inspiration. As you’ll notice, I’m also sporting my nom de plume for this story. Inside scoop: the band Grounder mentioned in this story is featured in my novel, Radio Head. (Can I just add how incredibly exciting it is to see my fictional band in print? Yay!)

Please do me the honor of giving it a read. Your comments and feedback are welcome! Thank you, and happy writing! Publishing dreams do come true.

It was easier when we were just friends. He never minded when I teased him for brewing coffee in a French press. True, it tasted better than the burnt water we serve at the pub, embittered by months of amber residue lining the carafe’s wall. But Julian’s beans were roasted with the fear of having to learn anything new. And I mean anything; the guy is teched so low he still uses a land line.

It was easier when he was just Julian: oil painter, plagiarizer of Grounder lyrics, and lender of decent books. When we were friends, I couldn’t let him down. Over the two years we dated, I disappointed him so frequently I never gave him an opportunity to displace his offense with an offer of love.

When he told me he was seeing someone new, the tight grip I’d held to my end of our connection fell as slack as his. Limp between us, the provocative manacle lay prone, taunting me to text him a photo with no subtle indication I’d taken it up again. Julian doesn’t have a phone to access such an image, of course.

Mixtape Methodology is a place for writing about music, for writing that wants to be music, for writing that wants the emotional immediacy of music, for those of us who want to experience the mental takedown of sonic oblivion through as many psychological pathways as possible, for those of us who want to dance about architecture.